The ranking for 2004 applications, the last year for which figures are
available worldwide: Japan, the United States, the European Patent Office, South
Korea, China. In terms of patent grants, the ranking: the United States, Japan,
China, South Korea.

China is on a tear as a capitalist roader, filing more than 130,000
applications in 2004, split about equally between locals and foreigners, a
six-fold jump from 1995. But in Japan, 80% of the 450,000 2004 applications were
filed by natives. In the U.S., 41% of the 403,050 applications filed were from
foreigners.

WIPO observes, "Patent statistics are increasingly recognized as useful
indicators of inventive activity and of technology flows." "The use of the
patent system is growing quickly in the northeast Asian region." Worldwide, over
the past nine years, average filing growth rate is 4.75%.

How does this work? The press is reporting a press release from WIPO, which
doesn't have the press release on its site?!